1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for a motor vehicle for occupant protection during an energy impact acting laterally on the door area of the motor vehicle and a vehicle seat, which provides at least one side-impact member that extends through the interior of the motor vehicle door, being located on the side of the vehicle door facing away from the energy impact.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Occupant protection in motor vehicles is one of the main objects in the construction and new development of motor vehicles. A separate development goal serves to design pronounced crumple zones in the front and rear areas, which are capable of substantially safely protecting the passenger cell during front and rear collisions. In contrast, during side collisions, occupant protection causes greater problems because of the smaller deformation paths available and the lower absorption capability of the side structure of a motor vehicle.
Known achievements for reducing the danger to the occupants existing during side collisions of motor vehicles provide stiffening of the motor vehicle door. Thus, for example, profiles integrated in the motor vehicle door, which have a high rigidity and/or a high energy absorption capability in the vehicle transverse direction, are known. For example, a vehicle door having side impact protection is disclosed in DE 196 33 637 A1, in whose door frame curved holding bars are provided, which are twisted in case of collision and deformed under tensile load in a way similar to the action of a guard net.
Stiffening the side doors by providing corresponding longitudinal members is insufficient in serious cases of collision for securing the occupants, however, since in the event of an external force action on the side door, these members are pressed through the door cutout of the vehicle body, so that the survival space of the occupants is drastically constricted and the chances of survival are reduced in the same way.
The prior art contains an array of measures which are capable of transmitting forces acting on the side door to the vehicle body. For example, forces are transmitted through appropriately large overlap between door and door cutout or through bolts projecting out of the edge of the door which engage in reinforced recesses of the door cutout of the motor vehicle body in case of collision. Thus, DE-AS 22 15 674 discloses a reinforcement unit provided for a motor vehicle door which essentially comprises a member curved outward, whose end sections, in the event of a deformation of the member into the stretched form caused by an external impact, penetrate into corresponding stable recesses inside the door frame. The member is preferably made of profiled sheet steel which is shaped appropriately through rolling.
To avoid an increase of the intrinsic weight of the motor vehicle caused by the preceding measures, DE 41 25 299 C2 describes a reinforcement unit provided for a motor vehicle door which, for reasons of weight reduction, comprises a curved reinforcement member unit manufactured from fiber-reinforced composite material. In this case as well, the reinforcement unit is completely inside the door, and its end regions only extend out of the door in case of collision because of the accompanying deformation of the reinforcement member, and in turn are operationally linked to stable support flanks in the door frame of the motor vehicle body.
DE 198 32 076 A1 discloses stiffening for a door area of a motor vehicle, having a side-impact member penetrating the motor vehicle door horizontally, which provides an articulated connection in the middle, using which the length of the side-impact member is changeable. In normal, crash-free operation, the articulated connection locks in an angled position, in which the side-impact member remains shortened inside the motor vehicle door. In contrast, in case of a crash, the articulated connection is actuated using a pyrotechnic actuator, through which the side-impact member is transferred into a stretched state in which the side-impact member projects beyond the motor vehicle door on both sides and discharges into the adjoining stable body areas.